Hearst Shkulev Media (HSM), a major Russian media group co-owned by Hearst Corporation, has acquired a controlling stake in Rugion, a network of city sites across Russian regions, in a bid to strengthen its existing regional activities. No details of the transaction have been disclosed, but Russian business daily Vedomosti learned from “a source close to one of the parties” that it amounted to “up to 20 million euros.”
Complementing its traditional print media activity, HSM started acquiring regional sites in 2012. The group now controls leading portals in Ekaterinburg (E1.RU), Nizhny Nogorod (NN.RU), Perm (PRM.RU), Samara (Samara24.ru), Sochi (Sochi-express.ru), and other cities.
This regional network attracted 19 million unique users in April 2015, according to Shkulev, who sites Google Analytics numbers, out of 31 million in total for all the online assets of the group.
Members of the Russian parliament have expressed concerns about this strong regional presence and the fact that HSM is 50% owned by a US company.
Rugion controls no fewer than 42 regional sites with representation offices in nine Russian cities with 500 employees. Its most popular site, 74.ru, was launched as early as 1996 to serve the inhabitants of Chelyabinsk, a city in the Urals.
According to Shkulev, the combined revenues of HSM’s regional network and Rugion exceeded 1.5 billion last year (approximately $39 million based on the average exchange rate). These revenues were generated by services (e.g. jobs classifieds) rather than online advertising.
One of the top ten media groups in Russia, Hearst Shkulev Media was co-owned Hachette Filipacchi Médias until 2011 and now global media group Hearst Corporation. Viktor Shkulev has a 50% stake. The group’s online activities will generate 35% of its revenues and 40% of its profits, according to Shkulev. The group’s sales revenues reached some 10 billion rubles last year (approximately $260 million based on the average exchange rate), vedomosti learned from a source close to the company.
